Wednesday, November 26, 2008

So you remember me sharing a photograph of gorgeous Adam and I said we had gone out to shoot the family portrait photoshoot in Saltwell Park but Adams little brother wasn't happy at all, well I suggested to mum that we moved the shoot indoors and so I went off to their house for an all round much more cosy shoot!

It really doesn't matter where you are when you have a handy backdrop!!

I love this one of Adam in Saltwell Park though, it does have a chilly winter feel to it though!

Gorgeous brother Daniel who I was told isn't keen on smiling on photographs.

Well Daniel and I had such fun playing boo and Daniel showed me all his animal figures, soon he was smiling like the best of them!

My favourite family shot from the day because it's real life, it's fun and you can't mess with that Dinosaur!

Jill, I know you all love these photographs and that makes me happy, I had so much fun with you guys that I can't wait for our next session when the weather is a little bit warmer!!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

For the next 4 weeks, in fact right up until the 22nd of December I am available every evening for a mini session - simply pay £99 for a half hour photoshoot and receive all of the images on disk ready to print, i'll also include a slideshow which would make a brilliant Christmas Present. In Half an hour in the comfort of your own home you would be looking to get around 25-50 photographs on disk all ready to print, the photographs will be retouched and the disk will be ready to collect or posted out within 48 hours.

There are so many reasons to book a mini session but Christmas is the biggest one!!

Oh and to give you some idea of the savings you'll be making with this very special offer, I usually sell single Hi res files for £19.99 and my prints start at £5.99 for a 5x7 so it really is an unbeatable saving and it means portraiture is for everyone!!

You could even buy a gift certificate for £99 and give this to someone you love so that they can have their own shoot in the new year.

These sessions are only available on weekday evenings and payment will be taken upon booking.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

I love Christine, she's one of my all time favourite clients. I photographed her with her boyfriend back in the summer when they both turned 21. Well a few months have passed and Christine decided that she wanted some photographs which were simply all about her and I can't tell you how happy that makes me because we as women don't often do that kind of thing!!

we started off with some autumn splendour.

and moved on to what I think reminds me of a 1940's film noir, it's kind of dark and sultry.

next we moved on to classic beauty and Christine, I think your mum is going to love this one.

I don't quite know what to say about this other than it's one of the most favourite photographs I think I've ever taken and yes it does help when you have someone as easy to photograph as Christine.

We ended the shoot with a grungy industrial feel and she pulled that off too!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

So this mornings photoshoot got cancelled at the last minute which means I haven't a thing to blog about..... except I have because I've taken a few photographs this week of several things which have happened or places we've been to so lets go with those instead!

Firstly lets go back to last Sunday when we took the girls to see Santa, really bad dark place and I didn't have my flash so took the following at 3200iso using my 24-70mm sigma f2.8, yes it really was THAT dark..

Santa was also not very good as this year an outside company had been brought in, hmmmm

On Monday we paid a short visit to Walkworth Castle

This shot my favourite of several (and if you want to see the whole weeks photos click on any of these to be transported to the Facebook album)On Tuesday Poppy gave birth to 5 kittens and we're keeping one who we have named Primrose

She's a cutie, I took this yesterday when she was 3 days old!

Also yesterday a quick shot of whoever was around at the time

Looby with one of the other kittens

Abigail - love this, might even get it on a big canvas!

then mr husband decided he wanted some photos of himself, he is of course a narcissist but hey so would I be if I looked this good, LOL!

Thank goodness he's gone back to blonde!

This one, I really love and it's been retouched and had lots of photoshop magic, he gave me free reign even though he usually doesn't like to think of himself being retouched, yes it's vanity but hey everyone can use a little photoshop massaging!!

he is good looking and I know that I totally traded up when I married him, I tell myself that every day, LOL!!

Tommorrows session will hopefully happen as planned as will the rest of the weeks so look out for lots of cute kids and a throng of fabulous families!!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

A great song and pretty much my life, because of 2 cancelled shoots last weekend I really haven't an awful lot to blog about. My life over the last week has included decorating the bathroom, working on wedding albums, sending prints to the lab, tidying the house, running around after the children and of course the occasional snuggle with hubby!!

Of course with the postponements of the shoots it's meaning that the next week is certainly going to make up for this weeks non-shooting, starting Saturday I have 7 shoots over 8 days and the book is still open in case I can squeeze one or two more in!!

I am striving to get all prints to clients by Christmas as long as they order by the 8th of December at the very very very very very latest, my lab can't guarantee anything after the 11th of December but I will try my utmost. Orders placed after the 11th definetly won't be dealt with until January, I'm having a few weeks off after my last wedding of the year on the 20th of December and next years wedding season kicks off in February!

Just a note about wedding photography, if you're looking for a wedding photographer for your 2009 wedding I must tell you that I am already half way to being fully booked for the year so please don't leave it too late or you may miss out and as ever the prime dates are the ones filling fastest.

Boudoir Photography - it's getting a little late to have these albums ready for Christmas so if you want one for a Christmas present you'll need to get in over the next week.

Men - Why not buy your partner a Boudoir Gift Voucher for Christmas, what a blinkin great present for both of you! You choose the value and I'll make up the personalised voucher, I'll even gift wrap it because I know you all hate doing that kind of thing. Call me on 0191 2289515/07918 121838 or click through to my little website!

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Especially since nothing is really going on at the moment. I did have a planned shoot this weekend which was postponed because of the weather, it's now going to be in a couple of weeks which strangely left me with a whole weekend off, I don't get many of those and yesterday we went to the Centre For Life and took the girls Ice-skating for the very first time! Now I didn't think it wise to take my camera so I just had hubbys camera phone but I can't connect it via bluetooth, don't know if we have a USB lead and it won't let me email myself, oh and it won't even send picture messages, what a blinkin joke eh?!

Anyway Ice-skating was fab, you'll have to take my word for that, Looby and Abigail loved it though did of course fall over a couple of times but then again so did hubby, I missed that but apparently he slid from one side of the rink to the other, I went intending not to fall over and I didn't! LOL

Afterward we went around the Centre For Life which was quite fun and then we decided to take the girls to see the Fenwicks Christmas Window which I thought was a total dark, dismal, depressing, disappointment (did you like the alliteration?) I actually can't understand what made the window dressers decide to concentrate on the darker sides of Oliver, a whole double window devoted to policemen searching for the body of Nancy after Bill Sykes had thrown in her in the canal really didn't make me feel festive, stick to singing trees and cuddly animals Fenwicks, get with the Christmas Programme!!

Speaking of Christmas, I have 2 slots next week available for family portraits complete with Santa hats if you wish because I have some of those!! If you want either a Saturday afternoon slot or a Sunday morning slot (Saturday afternoon is Jesmond Dene or similar, Sunday has to be Saltwell Park because thats where I am at 12pm for a shoot!) give me a call on either 0191 2289515 or 07918 121838, email me at mandy@mandycharltonphotography.com or see my website http://www.mandycharltonphotography.com

This afternoon we're going to take the girls to Heighley Gate garden centre because Santa has arrived and we take them every year and since all my weekends up to Christmas are just about full we thought we better take them today. I'm sure it will be lots of fun and Looby certainly is excited about it.

This week for me is all about albums, I have several which are in production at the moment, a couple of them are sent off to various producers and the rest are in the design stages, you can be sure that album design is my main priority, in fact I think about them 24/7 lol, I do wish sometimes that there was another me to help out in the busiest times and maybe if my business continues to grow as it is now I'll be able to hire someone by this time next year, it surely is an exciting time.

Did you know that you can buy gift vouchers for every occasion and any amount for Mandy Charlton Photography, they really do make a great Christmas gift, so if you want to give someone the gift of photography this year give me a call!

OOh - any toddlers or babies in the house? Have you hear about my Milestones photoshoots?

4 shoots over the course of a year at the bargain price of £100 and you get to choose your favourite from each shoot as a 10x8 enlargement and you'll also get a DVD slideshow from each shoot, with your own gallery to choose prints, and mini albums there's never been a better time to get your baby on the Milestones Programme.

Ok, mammoth blogging catch up over, I'm off to watch the Xfactor results show :-)

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

I had a photoshoot with a very important little lady on Saturday, I first met Amii (and lost my heart to her sweetness) back at Adrian and Stephs wedding and it was so great to catch up with Adrian and Steph who had come along for a whole family day out.

Once again Amy was simply gorgeous and full of fun.

She is such a sweetie pie.

Owen, Adrians son was also there so of course he had to have his photograph taken.

and Amiis cousins also came along to have their photograph taken.

Look at all those leaves!

and one of my favourites because it captures this wonderful little girls sunny personality.

I know Helen and all the family loved the photographs and I'm delighted because it was such a fun shoot and it's always twice as nice when it's people who are close to your heart.

Just a quick note, my schedule is becoming increasingly hectic with family portraits, in an effort to squeeze everyone in all orders for prints or canvases received before the 5th of December will be fulfilled in time for Christmas.

If you want to book a session this week I'm in Saltwell Park on Saturday and probably Jesmond Dene on Sunday and I have Santa Hats and reindeer noses for a festive feel so if that takes your fancy give me a call and I'll try and squeeze you in. call me on 07918 121838/0191 2289515 or see my website - http://www.mandycharltonphotography.com

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

So I'm in full Christmas family portraiture mode at the moment and sessions are pretty limited in availability so if you want one, hurry up or you might miss out and have to buy someone socks or a Terrys Chocolate Orange (urgh, please.... NO>>>>>>>>)for Christmas, call me on 07918 121838 or click through to my site.

So Saturdays first session was pretty early morning and it had been chucking it all day on Friday, I was a little scared that Saturday would be a wash out too but luckily the light was suitably amazing as were the family!

Because of the rain it wasn't that easy to find some leaves that could still be kicked but we managed.

Totally adorable and so well mannered.

Gorgeous and these two were so well behaved and chirpy, a real credit to their parents.

and whilst we're talking about parents - WOW!!

Awwwwww

The whole family!

Joanne has already seen these photographs and she said she couldn't beleive how fab they were, she actually used the word Flabbergasted, now you can't mess with a word like that!!

Stay tuned this week as I shot another 2 sessions last weekend, loads of gorgeous families still to come!!